RUBY WALSH AND Big Buck’s saw off what might have been his only remaining challengers in the three-mile section with a determined effort in the rescheduled Racing UK On Virgin 536 Long Walk Hurdle at Newbury yesterday.
The Grade One event was due to be held at Ascot a week and a half ago before it was lost to the frost but 30-odd miles further west in Berkshire the field were welcomed by rain-saturated ground.
It was billed as a clash between 2009 Ladbrokes World Hurdle winner Big Buck’s and Diamond Harry and as the field crawled around their first circuit, the young pretender and Timmy Murphy stalked the 1 to 2 favourite, a respectable distance behind the leader Fair Along.
Walsh had to get after Big Buck’s at the top of the straight and he looked briefly in some danger, but the gelding did not waver in his endeavour and drew three and a half lengths clear after leading two out.
Diamond Harry (11 to 4) drifted towards the right rail when challenging, certainly losing ground, and was beaten for second by Karabak. Nick Williams may now send Diamond Harry novice chasing, so Big Buck’s was cut to 4 to 6 from 11 to 10 by the sponsors for Cheltenham.
Winning trainer Paul Nicholls said: “He looks at the moment bomb-proof in that division, doesn’t he? He’d go for the Cleeve now, but I wouldn’t run him if it was really bad ground, he’d go straight to Cheltenham.
“I’m not going to jeopardise the World Hurdle for running around in bad ground. I had to run him in the Cleeve last year just to see if he was progressing. It’s easy to leave races behind at the end of January so we’ll keep an open mind.”
Nicholls believed there was more to Big Buck’s victory than met the eye. He continued: “He’s not always the most straightforward and I was worried it was going to turn into a tactical nightmare, but he just keeps so much in the locker and just does enough.
“I’m not sure he really enjoyed the ground. I’m sure he likes to bounce off better ground.”
Walsh added: “He’s a very, very good horse – he’s a great stayer. He handles the ground, I wouldn’t say he loved it but not too many horses do.
“He only does enough, but I guess that’s what you want with three-mile hurdlers. He was very deliberate over fences and took him a long time to get from A to B.
“As soon as he switched back to hurdles he turned them inside out.”
